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June 17, 2010 Finn Curators Visit Ostapeck Collection By Greg Sorin FLY CREEK July 13, 2007 Lady of the ValleyCelebrated Local Photographer, a Young 89, Will Be Featured in Capitol District Exhibit By Jim Kevlin FLY CREEK The young woman arrived in blue jeans, hair all over her head; a teenager like many others. No picture of aristocracy here. But after several hours with the Otsego Lake region’s most idiosyncratic and irresistible photographer, a different personality was captured on film. January 15, 2005 Portrait of a lady of destinyBy
Lisa Miller They used to call her the lady with the horse, but now the horse is dead and she is just Lady. She lives alone in an old farmhouse on a hill in Fly Creek, has lived there for nearly half a century, collecting things and transforming people. She is an artist with a career that has brought her some notoriety but not much money; a career she began on a whim and now says she was destined to pursue. December 23, 2004 Bassett hosts Lady Ostapeck exhibit August 27, 2003 Local artists receive grantsThe New York Foundation of the Arts has given a total of $2,320Oneonta Daily StarStaff Report Four local artists have received a total of $2,320 through the Upper Catskill Community Council of the Arts’ Special Opportunity Stipend Program. February 20, 2003 Come celebrate Lady with us!By Jim Atwell Fly Creek is throwing
a party, and you’re all invited. The party’s this Saturday,
February 22, from 2 to 4:30 at the Fly Creek Methodist Church. No
presents, please, but cards and mementos are welcome. Why, the 85th birthday of Lady Ostapeck, Fly Creek’s most treasured resident. November 7, 2002 Ostapeck to present picture of her workBy
Kelly Bruni Fly Creek photographer Lady Ostapeck remembers when she first became interested in photography. She was 2-years-old, lying in her crib, when her uncle was trying to get her to look at him. But her eyes were so mesmerized by a photograph on the wall, she would not look at him. “And I’ve been looking at pictures ever since,”said Ostapeck.
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Bill Gates / Cooperstown Crier Photo Lady Ostapeck uses a vintage piece of photo-pressing equipment — something she acquired at a garage sale. |
November 3, 1995
‘Lady’
wants no part
of hi-tech
FLY CREEK — “I make sure I don’t know anything,” Lady Ostapeck says of her approach to the technical side of photography.
It is a bit of an overstatement for the woman whose easily recognizable style has made her portraits among the best know photographic work in Otsego County over the past quarter century.
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Brent Hallenbeck Photo Lady
Ostapeck looks over one of the many costumes she uses for portraits
in her Fly Creek studio.
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November 7, 1988
Woman gives portraits a touch of the past
By Brent Hallenbeck
Staff Writer Oneonta Daily StarFLY CREEK — Lady Ostapeck’s photography studio is a cramped, 8-by-8-foot room at the entrance of her “small, shabby” home, which is filled with busts, clothes and other paraphernalia normally found at garage sales or the dump.
But she thinks statues of Chopin or Beethoven with cracked necks add something to her period portraits, which attract people from all over the Northeast to live out their fantasies as a rich English fop, a blackjack player from the Old West, or a wealthy European countess.
She describes her portrait sittings as more like a séance than photography because of the dreamlike states they create.
Lady Ostapeck — A Finnish–American Pictorial Pictorialist
New Yorkin Uutiset
Lady Ostapeck was born in Brooklyn in February 1918. “In fact.” she said, “to do this kooky photography you have to be born a Pisces. It’s a sensitive sign. But you can’t be sensitive existing in this world.” Her mother died a few days after she was born and most of her life was spent in New Jersey.
Her first love was dressmaking. She had artistic abilities but also liked to sew and thought that by mastering each, she could either be an illustrator or a dress designer. She studied art in high school and evening classes, but could not make a living at it. “I wasn’t good enough,” she said. …”
The Pictorial Portraitist
By Jane S. Johngren
If after browsing through the Smith-Telfer collection of old photographs at Fenimore House you rushed home to dust off your camera, viewing the group of portraits by Lady Ostapeck now on display at the National Commercial Bank and Trust Company will inspire you to call for a sitting at the first opportunity.
Most people, I suspect, have at some time in their lives imagined, even wished, themselves to be of another time, perhaps another country or a different profession. Certainly there are parts of our personalities, which remain hidden from our friends, even our families — secret desires, dreams, fantasies. In short, there is a romantic, fanciful strain in even the most realistic and pragmatic of us, and there are few acceptable ways to express it. Lady Ostapeck’s Whimsy Hill Studio in Fly Creek offers one.
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— Lady Ostapeck 2008, kuva Juha Metso, left |
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Finishing TouchesAn article Lady Ostapeck is featured on one Finnish Web site, while her portrait is featured two others. Finnish photographer Pirkko Porkka captured Lady O in Helsinki on June 6, 2006. Lady O explains her costume: “I’m visiting Finland because I had a photography exhibition at Lapua. I live in Otsego County but I‘m of Finnish descent. The gentlemen‘s stetson is my umbrella. My friend Ulla-Maija gave me the poncho. The dress is self made years ago. The black elastic stockings are good for travelling. These traditional Finnish shoes were the only pair that do not hurt my feet.” The image is posted on the Hel-Looks Web site, along with street photographs by other photographers. |
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Lady Ostapeck and the Whispering Camera (A liberal translation of an article written by Hannele Niemi, originally published in Askel magazine in Finnish; translation generously furnished by Juha-Matti Levasalmi) Lady Ostapeck’s delightfully beautiful photographs are born from the artist’s own eventful and even tragic life. At almost 90 years of age, Lady explains that she has received everything she wished for. Yet there is still one more dream to come true: a small cottage close to a bus stop. And if everything were to work out perfectly, the small cottage would be in Finland. |